At Dinner With Clintons, Deejay Serves Up Unappetizing Jokes

With President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton sitting only a few feet away, radio shock-jock Don Imus told off-color jokes about them during the annual dinner of the Radio and Television Correspondents Assn.

“I personally believe a large part of that entertainment, if that’s what we call it, offered last night was fairly tasteless,” Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Friday.

Imus joked about Clinton’s alleged extramarital affairs, the first lady’s financial dealings and the homosexuality of House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s half sister. The president was photographed grimacing at one of the lines.

Terry Murphy, chairman of the association and a vice president of C-SPAN, sent a letter of regret for “putting you and the first lady in the position of having to endure embarrassment,” and said he hoped they would return “for a more enjoyable evening” at a future dinner.

Imus began his routine with a stab at Mrs. Clinton’s involvement in the Whitewater affair that elicited a stone-faced smile from her. Imus then joked about the president’s alleged marital infidelity that brought looks of shock from some guests.

But there was a lot of raucous laughter as well from the crowd of 3,000 journalists and invited guests, and no one was spared as he commented on everything from former New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo’s alleged Mafia ties to Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey’s “wooden” leg.

Imus hit some conservative targets as well, saying a good title for a book by Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato would be “It Takes a Village Idiot” and commenting about Sen. Phil Gramm’s failed presidential bid: “You can’t sound like you just walked out of the woods in ‘Deliverance’ and not scare people.”

When Imus finished, some guests were seen shaking their heads and a few booed.

McCurry said the Clintons “fled the scene as quickly as they could.”

He called C-SPAN to ask that the performance not be replayed, but the network plans to rerun it as scheduled at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. PST today “so the public can see for themselves what all this fuss was about.”

One of Imus’ few defenders was Republican commentator Mary Matalin, who said: “The Democrats have proved that they are humor-impaired.”